PF Refute Claims They Beat Up Catholic Priest

Rumours have been circulating that members of the Patriotic Front beat up a Catholic Priest in Sesheke Constituency after he removed posters.

However, PF Media Director Sunday Chanda has denied these rumours and claims that the Governance, Elections, Advocacy and Research Services (GEARS) are fabricating the story.

Sunday Chanda instead claimed that the rumours were peddled by Macdonald Chipenzi and had an anti-PF motivation.

GEARS released the following statements;

‘GEARS Initiative monitors in Sesheke reports that suspected PF cadres attacked the upnd rally meeting held on 26th January, 2019 at Maondo grounds in Maondo ward and left one person seriously injured.

The injured was an old woman in her late 70s who was hammered with a club and she was rushed to Yeta District Hospital where she was admitted.’

The statement continued;

‘Disturbingly, when these suspected PF cadres came back from attacking the upnd supporters at their rally in Maondo, they went to and into the local Catholic Church in Sesheke and beat up the priest who had instructed the Catholic youths to remove the PF posters that were pasted on the Church wall fence.

The priest’ s contention was that the church was a neutral place which did not allow the pasting of political propaganda posters or any political campaign materials.

The priest reported the incident and his attackers to Sesheke Police Station but no arrests have been affected to date.’